Monopoly Bring The House Down slot review

Monopoly Bring The House Down slot is yet another incarnation of the Hasbro board game theme and now there are various slots on this theme, examples being WMS's Monopoly Big Event and Super Monopoly Money. I suppose being a gambling game it makes good subject material for slots and here is no different with Barcrest's 'Big Bet' formula which allows you to bet up to $50 a spin to buy Community Chest advantages for a block of spins at a higher RTP. The reels are pretty basic and lie over a Monopoly board and we get the usual music for this theme as we play, but will this really bring the house down, or just bring our bankroll down?

On the reels...
There are 40 pay lines over 5 reels of 4 rows and it's best to base the observations here over a minimum 40c stake. Some symbols are stacked and Wilds can appear on all reels although they are actually displayed in blocks of Green Houses called the 'Hot Zone' over the reels as they spin and may land over the reels after they have stopped. After a any spin you may get Mr. Monopoly offer you a 'Chance' pick and you get a pattern of 4 House Wilds overlaid on the grid to improve any wins. This can also come in the form of a 'Selector' which gives you the chance to reject the Wild pattern for another one which may increase wins - or not. Sometimes the Hot Zone may stop immediately above the reels and when this happens a 'Bonus Drop' may occur, in which it then slides down onto the grid.

The pays are low: 5-of-a-kind Wilds award 5x bet, the Dog or Cat silver play pieces 4x, the Car 3x and the Ship 2x. The five card values pay either 1 or 1.5x bet for a full line. These awards are higher if you choose the Big Bet option though, by 150%. Aside from the random Chance pick, your Hot Zone of House Wilds above the reels may randomly transform into Red Hotels and should they stop over the grid you get a 2, 3 or 5x multiplier on any wins they are part of.

Free spins
Should you land 3 Monopoly logos on reels 1, 3 and 5 you will get 8 free games with no retrigger possible. If any Hot Zones land on the grid they will become sticky whether the Houses or the multiplying Red Hotels.

Big bets
If you are wealthy enough, you can choose to play 5 Big Bet spins for either 20, 30, 40 or 50 Pounds/Euros. Those four options will offer you 1, 2, 3 or 4 Community Chest picks respectively before the 5 spins start. The possible six outcomes of the Community Chest cards are :

Hotel Upgrade - all Hot Zone Wilds now become Hotels with a multiplier of 2, 3 or 5x.Ever Spin A Winner - as it says!Win Eliminators - card values removed.Scatter Wild - any scatter will become sticky and transform into a Wild until the end, or if free games are won.Extra Spins - 1, 2 or 3 extra free spins.Instant Win - pays 5 to 50.00.

You then play the Big Bet spins with any enhancement(s) picked.

Our View...
Monopoly Bring The House Down slot is inventive and a good take on an old theme but again the Big Bets is the issue. Your basic RTP is only 94.10% and rises to 98.10 if you play the two higher BB spin values. Given that these hugely expensive $40/50 spins will mostly pay a fraction of the cost, and when you do win it's hard to get more than 2x the stake then I think it's a bad deal. If you don't use the BB option the game is poor anyway with many dead spins and the feature being hard to trigger. The graphics and animations are nothing special and became tiring very quickly. I can only advise that this game should have been named 'Monopoly Bring Your Balance Down' - and fast...